This blog was commenced in late 2011, at the beginning of a three year posting to Moscow. I returned to Australia at the end of 2014.
My intention was to provide a pictorial commentary on my observations of Moscow, a city most people in Australia know little about.
The blog has now been wound up and there will be no more entries. Nor will I respond to any more comments. Thanks for visiting.

Pages

Monday, 25 February 2013

The last few days have been beautiful. Welcome sunshine after a couple of months of grey skies and gloom. The sun even has some warmth in it.

Many tourists find their way to Novodevichy Convent, so I thought I'd write about a religious institution casual visitors to Moscow do not see, the Nikolo-Perervinskiy Monastery. I also think its more attractive than Novodevichy.

The blue towers of the 'Cathedral of the Iberian Icon of the Virgin' are visible in the distance and across the river from the architectural park at Kolomenskoe (see my posts dated 9 March and 6 August last year - which reminds me I need to do a more complete post on that park some time). It took me a little while to work out where this cathedral is and how to get there. You take the metro on the light green line to Pechatniki, then a bus south (the 30, 161 or 292). The monastery is very obvious - get off the bus when you see it.

The Cathedral of the Iberian Icon of the Virgin

The monastery's existence was first recorded in 1623, but it has probably been around since the 14th century. The cathedral was built in 1908, one of the last churches to be constructed before the Bolsheviks took power. It was also one of the last monasteries to be closed, perhaps because the buses down there are pretty rickety and Stalin didn't like traveling in them.

The monastery is functioning, fully restored and the grounds and cathedral are open to visitors.

Saturday, 9 February 2013

After very heavy snowfall last Monday, the daytime
temperature has been hovering around zero. While the city is pretty efficient
at clearing snow from the streets, what happens on the footpaths is a bit
hit-and-miss and often seems to depend on what the adjacent building owner
feels like doing. These temperatures mean that snow partially melts and then
refreezes overnight, becoming icy and dangerous. It’s not much fun walking
around at the moment.

Snow and ice on roofs is also a hazard to passers-by and
there has been plenty of activity clearing it off. Unfortunately this often
means blocking off sections of the footpath, temporarily rerouting
long-suffering Moscow pedestrians on to the roads to take their chances with
the cars. The following photo I took today of some guys clearing snow off the
roof of a 6-storey building. I noticed a couple of them were wearing harnesses, but they
weren’t actually connected to anything. I guess they rely on that flimsy
looking fence if they start sliding down the roof. Most buildings have them. There can be a fairly casual approach to workplace safety in Moscow. Workers
using jackhammers, for example, often use no ear protection.

Clearing snow off a 6 story building. I'm not sure I'd like to rely on that little fence in an emergency

Anyway, I’ve gone off the track, because today I really intended
writing about the Contemporary History Museum in Tverskaya Ulitsa.

This museum covers the period from the mid-19th
century to the end of the Soviet Union. It contains a remarkable collection of
original documents and artifacts. If you have any interest in revolutionary
Russia, this museum is a must-see. The presentation is logical, with numerous
rooms of displays guiding the visitor chronologically through the tumultuous
events that have made modern Russia.

Each room has a well-written interpretive plate in both
Russian and English. I think these must be fairly new, as I don’t recall seeing
them on my previous visit nearly 12 months ago. In addition, the rooms also
have an English language A4 sheet which explains, in more detail, many of the
displays, though these sheets are becoming a bit tatty.

If I have any misgivings about the museum, it is that some
of the more unpalatable aspects of recent Russian history tend to be smoothed
over. Stalin’s brutal reign, for example, is given a fairly light touch. One
could easily come away from the display of contemporary propaganda posters and
other paraphernalia with the impression he was a kindly and benevolent ruler.
His execution of large numbers of army officers prior to the Great Patriotic War/Second World
War is described as a reorganisation of the army. The department that employed me for many years in Australia was also recently restructured - thankfully I survived the experience.

Stalin taking time out from the dull routine of purges

That aside, this museum contains some amazing stuff and if
you think you’d enjoy seeing such things as actual banners that were waved
around during revolutionary demonstrations, you won’t begrudge the 250
rouble/$7.50 entry fee (plus an extra 100 roubles if you want to take photos).

This museum is easy to get to, it’s on Tverskaya Ulitsa,
almost opposite Tverskaya metro station (just up the road a bit towards Mayakovskaya).
You can’t miss it, it’s the grand red building with crouching lion statues and
a little armoured car in the courtyard.

The building is also worth visiting in its own right. It was
built around 1800, damaged in Napoleon’s 1812 fire, renovated and extended, then
sold to the English Club in 1831 by the owner, Count Razumovsky. The English
Club, which was formed in 1772 as an expats social club, was disbanded after
the 1917 revolution and the building taken over by the Bolshevik government.

Parts of the museum, once used as the English Club, are quite grand

A great collection of revolutionary artifacts.

What the well-dressed Russian geologist was wearing before the revolution. All I used to wear was a pair of old shorts and a tatty teeshirt. At least the hammers haven't changed much.